Two PCs, two devices, Outlook duplicate hell...

[Guest theremon]

Hi guys

This is my first post here. I've been browsing the forum for quite sometime now, but I've never posted before, so let me start by saying "Hi all" :)

I'm sorry I have to bug you with a problem as my first post, but this is really getting annoying here and I don't seem to be able to figure out a way how to overcome it.

As you've read in the topic subject, my problem is about two devices, on two PCs. Details are as follows:

I first got a QTek 2020 (aka XDA II etc) a few months ago. Recently I also bought a QTek 8080 (aka iMate 2, SPV E200 etc).

I need to have both of these synced with my two PCs - one at home and one at the office. Both PCs run Windows 2000, but my home PC runs Outlook 2003 while the office one runs Outlook 2000. Finally, both run Activesync 3.7.1 build 4034 - the latest I could find.

My sync options are as follows:

QTek 2020:

Everything (except AvantGo) at home, everything except AvantGo and Inbox at work.

QTek 8080:

Everything at home, everything except Inbox at work.

Now that I've tired you enough with my setup, on with the problem.

The problem involves mostly Contacts and recurring appointments (birthdays, anniversaries and so on all entered as recurring all-day events) which I really like to have in my contacts's details cause otherwise I forget and get in lots and lots of trouble :wink:.

I can't remember exactly when it started, but now that I've bought the second device, it certainly got worse. Problem is that for most of the contacts that have such an event assigned, Activesync keeps generating duplicate entries.

Say I'm at home and I connect one device (say the 2020) and clear everything up. I'll then connect the 8080 and it may or may not recreate the deleted ones. If it does I'll need to clear it all up again, reconnect the 2020 and then it'll re-sync and it'll be fine.

However, when I'll take my stuff at the office and try to sync, this will happen all over again. :P

I just finished the procedure here at the office after I had everything cleared up fine last night at home. When I got here, it synced the 2020 [almost] ok, but when I connected the 8080, it decided that it'd be a nice idea to re-sync everything (I saw Activesync say that double my items need synchronization - ie: I have 10 calendar events, it said 20 needed syncing - 110 contacts, it said 220). Being curious, after it synced and created duplicate entries for my events, I connected the 2020 and let it sync.

After that, I ended up with 3 copies of each recurring event! :shock: One that pre-existed in Outlook, one that was created after 8080's syncing and one after 2020'sa syncing. Go figure... :?

I then cleared it up. Tried to resync both devices. Luckily, I just ended up with 2 copies of everything instead of 3. Then I just deleted all of these events and resynced. To my surprise, everything was ok.

Now... I've tried several stuff. I suspected that the problems were caused by something silly I had done when initially entering my contacts. Maybe I had some entered in this PC, some on that one, some on the device itself.

So, during the past few days, I tried the following procedure. I backed up both my home and work Outlook calendars, tasks and contacts (ie. the stuff I care about the most). Being at work, I deleted everything and synced both devices, blanking them out too. Then I got home, made sure my backup was fine, and synced with the newly-cleared-out devices. MY home Outlook was emptied as expected. Then I copied everything (except the recurring events) from my backups to the normal Outlook folders, causing the devices to re-sync with the 'new' data. Everything was fine for a change.

Next day, I got to work. I synced my devices. Guess what. The usual duplicate contacts appeared, along with the recurring events I had erased! I guess one of the two Outlooks automatically generated a recurring event for each birthday/anniversary it found in my contacts's details and messed it all up again.

I've tried this again, but after backing up my 2020, restoring without the contacts/calendar/tasks databases. Nothing.

I've also tried deleting the events from my 2020 itself (so that it wouldn't be a PC that caused the change), sync with outlook then sync my 8080. At first it worked - then I went to the other PC and the duplicates were back.

On a final note - this sometimes (haven't figured out when, but it could be after I hard reset my 2020 and restore a backup) happens with my tasks too.

I don't know what to do anymore. I guess there are many others around here that have more than one device. Does this happen to all? Is there anything I can do? Is there a procedure I should follow to help me and you guys gather some more data about the problem?

Any kind of help will be greatly appreciated.

I apologize for posting such a long message - I just wanted to describe this as good as I could.

Once again, Id like to say Hi to everyone. This is a great forum. It's nice to be around here.

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

Welcome to the site :)

Check the Conflict Resolution in Rules on syncing in Activsync.

[Guest theremon]

Uh oh - I've set it up so that both PCs are on 'leave item unresolved'. So that I get a chance to review what has been changed (whenever possible since ActiveSync doesn't provide details on troublesome items).

I've thought it'd be the best way in order to overcome problems such as accidentally erasing/changing content from the PC or the device when it should do the opposite - let me choose which way the data should go.

But that's another thing - I don't always get that option :)

[Guest theremon]

Guys? Any other ideas or clues? This is really getting annoying...

I've tried several other stuff myself during the past few days but to no avail :)

Seems like when synchronizing the contacts, Outlook recreates the calendar events itself. Once for the Pocket PC and a second time for the Smartphone and I keep ending up with double events. Even though if I delete them altogether from my Calendar (but leave them in the contact's details)

[Guest maxh2003]

Attached link points to a program which will remove duplicates on the PC, it might help; it's certainly helped me. At least when duplicates appear it's less annoying.

Curious license (it's prayerware...) but it does the job..

http://www.simon.rundell.btinternet.co.uk/ODR5.exe

:edit: working link -> http://www.slipstick.com/files/ODR5.EXE

[Guest theremon]

Thanks a lot.

Even if tho it won't solve the problem, this will certainly help.

I appreciate it :)